


tell me what all the sighing's about

by girlsonthetv



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F, implied childbirth before the beginning, no babyrealms au, wartime angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 11:43:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7933336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsonthetv/pseuds/girlsonthetv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Azura isn't one to break a promise. Neither is Severa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tell me what all the sighing's about

**Author's Note:**

> For yesterday's prompt, "family". Inspired directly by a few tweets by @doompumpkin about Azura/Severa post br15

Azura smiles softly in the dim candlelight of the medical tent as she looks at the blanket-swaddled infant in her arms. Sweat plasters her hair to her forehead – it hasn’t been long since she had finished giving birth, Elise and Felicia both slinking off to get some rest at the urgings of both Azura and Severa. She had kneeled next to Azura throughout the whole process, holding her hand, reassuring her while Felicia and Elise using their staves to ease the pain. Azura did not scream her pain – she never did – but there were plenty of times where she had gripped Severa’s hand so tightly she had been certain it would fall off.

Now Azura’s head rests against Severa’s shoulder as they watch her infant son’s chest rise and fall with his breath. He is asleep now, his eyes closed. His hair – or the tuft of fuzz that will one day become hair – is the same washed-out baby blue as his mother. Severa wonders if he will look more like Azura as he grows, or more like Kaze, his father who had died so long ago in the skirmish with the wolfskins but it still felt like yesterday. Especially when Azura remembers that detail too and Severa sees her smile fade. 

Severa doesn’t know what they have, whether it’s love or just the kind of closeness born in war when all two people have is each other. But she can’t find it in her to care. She just knows that she would do about anything for Azura, especially now, when she is so vulnerable it makes Severa’s heart ache. 

If you had told Severa months ago that she would not only become part of Corrin’s army, but become close with the enigmatic songstress that seemed to be Corrin’s right-hand woman, she would have scoffed. But after everything in Cheve, Camilla was compelled to send her along to aid, in secret with hushed voices and a hidden passage or two. So it happened that she had arrived just before Kaze fell. 

She had learned from the other soldiers soon after that Kaze was the songstress’s husband, and the songstress in question was called Azura.

Severa knew a thing or two about losing loved ones in the middle of a ridiculous war that she hadn’t asked for, and so she had found Azura a few weeks later while she was practicing late at night and congratulated her on her strength. Azura had smiled and thanked her and Severa’s heart skipped inside her. 

Things progressed quickly, as partnerships often did during wartime. Either of them could die at any minute, so they quickly moved from late-night conversations to deep kisses to Azura regularly sleeping in Severa’s tent with her, because it was at the edge of camp and she preferred the quiet. It also felt nicer to have someone next to her.

She didn’t say the last bit, but Severa knew. She understood deeply how Azura felt to lose her lover in sacrifice, and maybe that was part of the reason they quickly became so close. They were in Severa’s tent then, and had been preparing to go to bed when Azura had felt it.

“Severa.” Azura says quietly, her words nearly being swallowed up by the darkness outside their sphere of candlelight, her and Severa and the little baby, still blissfully asleep. “Can I ask you a favor?” 

Severa had told Azura her real name long ago, under the condition to not tell anyone else. Azura had kept that promise. She always kept her promises. 

"Sure, Azura. What?" Severa was still looking at the infant. She privately thought that he would look more like Azura when he grew up. He would be a dead ringer for his mother.

“If I die,” Azura says, even quieter this time. “Will you take care of Shigure?” 

Severa turns quickly to look Azura in the eye. Her gaze is solemn, as it is nearly always. She has seen those gold eyes filled with light and laughter. “Shigure.” She said, her words tripping over each other. “I-is that what you’re gonna name him?”

Azura nodded. “It’s a Hoshidan word.”

“Okay. That’s a good name.” She glances down at the newly named Shigure. “I like it. It’s nice.”

“Don’t change the subject.” There was a tinge of sadness in Azura’s voice. Severa hated it. “I want you to take care of him in the event something happens to me.” 

“I can guarantee you that there isn’t a single person in this camp less equipped to care for a child than me.” Severa scoffs. How could she raise a child? With the way she had grown up, who knew what ugly habits she would unknowingly pass on to this innocent boy. 

“There isn’t a single person in this camp I trust more than you if I can’t be there to raise him.” Azura smiles. “I’m not saying you’ll ever have to be responsible for his upbringing.”

“Right. J-just if you die.” Severa stares at her blanket-covered lap. She still has her day clothes on. She wants to change and get ready for sleep, but not before they finish this conversation. “I don’t want to think about you dying, alright? I care about you.” Severa felt herself blush like she did whenever she got angry, or upset, or a sickening mixture of both. She grabbed fistfuls of the blanket. 

“I care about you too, Severa. Which is why I really didn’t want to talk about this.” Azura tilts Severa’s head towards her, one slender hand under her chin. “But I’ve been thinking about a lot of things recently, and I want to know.” 

“Of course I will, Azura. Absolutely.” Severa says with every bit of honesty. Azura’s eyes are gold flecked with hazel, and they’re some of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen. She could stare into Azura’s eyes for hours.

Azura smiles, and Severa feels herself relax. “I’m glad, Severa.”

Severa smiles too. “Alright, can I get up? I need to take my clothes off still.”

“Go ahead.”

Severa has undressed in front of Azura enough times to not feel uncomfortable, and when she settles back into bed Azura is still holding Shigure with only one hand, and looking at her expectantly. 

"Would you like to hold him?” 

“I-I, um…” Severa has never held a child before. She half-believes that the child will start squalling the minute her fingers brush its skin. 

“Go ahead.” Azura holds Shigure out to Severa, still swaddled in blankets, though he is now blinking his eyes, eyes gold flecked with hazel like his mother’s, and Severa takes him gently in her arms. He wriggles a bit, and Severa stiffens, but he quickly settles down, and Severa smiles softly. He is heavier than she expected, but she doesn’t entirely mind it.

Azura smiles, truly happy. “He likes you.” 

Severa wakes up the next morning with the baby still in her arms, sleeping peacefully.

~

Azura does die, at the end of the war. She dissolves into water, as a result of her necklace’s power. Severa watches it happen from a ways behind Corrin as he screams and begs for there to be a way to save her. Severa wants to sob too, wants to run to Azura. But she stays where she is, her jaw tightening as Azura turns to clear, baby blue water that cannot be held in your hands no matter how you try.

~

Inigo vanishes after the war. Owain does too, but reappears years later the husband of Takumi, the Hoshidan prince, and the father of two children, Ophelia and Kiragi. Severa returns to Nohr with growing Shigure, retiring to a nice house near Camilla. She privately congratulates Severa on her work, and they remain friends. Shigure grows into a fine young man, with a passion for the arts, and twice a month she takes him to Hoshido to see plays and observe the art in museums and listen to the music. She wants him to stay in touch with his roots, with the birthplace of his father. 

She thinks Azura would like that.


End file.
